From: Alexander Sheppard (alexandersheppard@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Nov 04 2002 - 08:03:38 MST
There is some talk here about the nature of capitalist risk. I'd like to
address this issue somewhat, because I think it is important. The idea that
has been made is that, unless people threaten other people with enforced
deprevation of resources, in some cases meaning death, for pursuing goals
which are not, in the judgement of those who have wealth in society,
meaningful or productive, no one will pursue goals which are meaningful or
productive. Now, there are some arguments related to this. For example, some
have said that not just the poor take the risk, the rich take it too, but
this is ridiculous. The rich have no risk of starving or losing their homes
; the poor do, in a capitalist society. Capitalism effectively translates
into dictatorship of the wealthy over the poor (thus explaining why the
state often intervenes to promote the interests of the wealthy ; this only
natural) because the threat of withholding essential material resources is
just as potent as the threat of burning down someone's house or simply
shooting them.
These ideas are totally anti-humanistic: they believe in the sanctity of a
system rather the sanctity of the human condition and actual human freedom.
In other words, socialism and capitalism, anarchism and authoritarianism,
are only useful insofar as they are humanistic. And capitalism is not
humanistic, rather it is a sort of fundamentalist doctrine where everyone
believes unquestioningly in the sanctity of the system of private property,
even if the actual results are monstrous lack of liberty, material
inequality, fear, and sadness. Now it can be said that socialism is this way
too. Now certainly those who call themselves socialist or communist (I do
not believe, if we use consistent definitions, that they can really be said
to be either one) on the authoritarian end of the spectrum, for example
Marxists, Bolsheviks, and other possibly or certainly tyrannical ideas are
anti-humanistic, I agree. But any system which favors real human liberty is
basically desirable, I think, and it is the anarchists, or libertarian
socialists, who do this.
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